The failure of Hey Ram really impacted you?
It didn’t work anywhere. Critics were kind, but Hey Ram was a commercial disaster. It was so edge-of-the-seat that audiences slipped out of their seats and out of the theatres (laughs). Even when I was making it, people asked me what the hell I was doing. Such expenses for what? I said it was a promise I made to myself. Like a spouse and a house.
26 Years of Hey Ram: Kamal Haasan reflects on his most personal failure
Did it put you in the red?
Yes, I was in financial soup. It could’ve gone either way. It went the unsuccessful way, which wasn’t very convenient financially. One producer forced me to cut down my remuneration at the last minute. But as an actor, I’ve no complaints. I’m one of the highest-paid actors in the country. Thanks to my brother, Chandra Haasan, who looks into my tax matters, I have zero tax arrears. That leaves me with no surplus funds for Swiss bank accounts at all. But I sleep very peacefully at night. When I hear the thud of boots down my corridor, I don’t cringe in fear. You can call it virtuous stupidity. But it’s a comfortable life.
They even said you were self-indulgent in Hey Ram?
That’s because the publicity in Mumbai made them feel there was much more of Shah Rukh Khan in the film. Okay, Javed Akhtar saab is a good writer. He wrote Seeta Aur Geeta. Tell me, how many scenes are there in it without one or the other Hema Malini ji except when the villain growls on screen?
Historicals seldom work?
Just because my Hey Ram or Rajkumar Santoshi’s The Legend of Bhagat Singh failed, let’s not question the audience’s appetite for history. Didn’t Sohrab Modi make many successful historicals? Maybe they were hyperbolic. But what’s wrong with that? History, after a point, becomes mythologised. It’s in our blood. I’m happy for Aamir’s star power. “Kamal Haasan the Star” always genuflects before Kamal Haasan the Filmmaker, who warns the star to be careful. The director is the star though the actor won’t always admit it.
Which among your directorials are you most proud of?
Hey Ram. A German scholar has opened a website where he reviewed Hey Ram along with Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa. He believes the two films are in the same league. Our Hey Ram went wrong with the audience. I’m not angry with them for rejecting it. When people call it a great film now, it doesn’t make much sense. It was like Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool. Not enough people went to see Hey Ram.
More Pages: Hey! Ram Box Office Collection
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